


America's Sweetheart

by onceuponanevilangel



Category: Conviction (TV 2016)
Genre: Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism, F/F, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 06:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8361655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceuponanevilangel/pseuds/onceuponanevilangel
Summary: After the news story breaks, Hayes does exactly what she always does. She runs. Except this time she finds herself running into someone she never would have guessed she'd need.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to "America's Sweetheart" by Elle King and this happened. There's a teeny tiny possibility that there might be another part to this, but I'm not sure, so I'm marking it as complete for the time being. Enjoy!

_America’s Sweetheart? Notorious party girl Hayes Morrison hasn’t lost her rebellious streak._

It seemed like the headline was plastered all over the internet the minute that the story broke, almost like the journalists had had it on file, just waiting for her to mess up again. Judging by how nonspecific it was, that was a pretty legitimate possibility, but Hayes didn’t want to think about that at the moment.

Right then all she wanted to do was drown her problems with whatever liquor she could get her hands on and hope that she’d still be too sick in the morning to deal with everything.

She raced out of Wallace’s apartment without looking back and didn’t stop until she was halfway down the block, out of breath with one shoe threatening to slip off and her coat flapping wildly around her.

She leaned against the side of the building next to her and pulled her phone out of her coat pocket. There were texts from Frankie, Sam, and Maxine and three more texts plus a voicemail from Jackson. She debated reading the messages, but there were tears gathering in her eyes, blurring her vision so much that reading would be damn near impossible.

Her thumb hovered over the voicemail icon for a moment, but then she stopped. She wasn’t sure that she was in the mood to hear Jackson’s voice and she definitely didn’t want to see him just yet, so she straightened up and set off quickly for the only place that sprang to mind.

It was only a few blocks to the office building and thanks to the late hour, there was no one around to see her as she started crying in earnest before she even reached the elevator. Once she got up to her office, she collapsed into her +chair, found the half-empty bottle of whiskey that she kept in her desk, and took a swig without even bothering to find a glass.

“Hayes?”

Hayes jumped and almost dropped the bottle at the sound of the quiet voice from her doorway and she spun her chair around to see Tess peeking hesitantly into the office.

There was a brief moment where both of them were frozen, Tess not daring to come any closer until she was invited and Hayes just not entirely sure what to do with herself. It certainly wasn’t the first time that she had been caught drowning her sorrows, but with Tess there she suddenly felt self-conscious and she wasn’t sure why.

She set the bottle on her desk, sliding it a little ways away from her before running her pinkies under her eyes to try to wipe away some of the tears and salvage the makeup that was smudged beyond saving.

“What are you doing here?” Tess asked.

“I could ask you the same question,” Hayes replied a little too sharply.

“I was just organizing some files,” Tess said. “Are you okay? You’re crying.”

Hayes felt a few rebellious tears slide down her cheeks and she angrily wiped them away with the palm of her hand. “You really haven’t heard yet?”

“Heard what?”

Hayes choked out a sharp laugh and unlocked her phone. It was still open to the first article which had already gained a few hundred thousand hits. She slid her phone across her desk and Tess walked closer and picked it up. Her eyes widened as she read the article and when she was done, she set the phone face down on her desk again and looked down.

“I’m so sorry,” Tess whispered.

“What for?” Hayes asked. “I’m the bitch who got caught with coke. I should have known that this was coming eventually. Things were going to well. I was overdue to fuck something up.”

“Don’t say that,” Tess said. She looked up and met Hayes’s red-rimmed eyes. “You didn’t deserve this.”

Hayes laughed again and a few more tears slipped out of the corners of her eyes. She grabbed the whiskey bottle again and took another drink.

“You know, there’s a reason people don’t want to meet their celebrity crushes,” she said. “Everything’s messier up close.”

Tess blushed and looked down at her hands again. “I never said you were my – “

“Didn’t have to,” Hayes said. She swiped her fingers under her eyes again and they came back smudged black with running mascara. “I knew I should have worn waterproof today.” She found a tissue in her purse and tried to catch the makeup before it ran any further, but it was a lost cause and she finally gave up with a frustrated huff and another swig from her bottle.

It was quiet for a moment save for Hayes’s quiet sniffling until finally she spoke again.

“You know, I always hated that nickname,” she said.

“What?” Tess asked.

“America’s sweetheart,” Hayes said it like it left a bad taste in her mouth. “My mother used to call me ‘sweetheart’. She still does. It’s disgusting.”

“It makes you sound like a piece of candy,” Tess said with a nervous sort of half-smile.

Hayes laughed again, but this time it sounded a little bit more convincing.

“Exactly,” she said. “Like one of those little Valentine’s Day hearts or something. You know the ones that have those little sayings on them?”

“Yeah, they say like ‘too sweet’ or ‘adore me’,” Tess said.

“Or ‘kiss me’,” Hayes said.

The faint pink blush on Tess’s cheeks reappeared in earnest, but she didn’t learn move until Hayes suddenly stood up and placed her hands on her hands on the desk, leaning forward just a little bit. Her eyes flicked briefly down to Tess’s lips and then back up to her eyes.

“Hayes, I – “

Hayes immediately sat back down and looked away. “I-I’m sorry. I’ve got a tendency to make things go from bad to worse and you deserve better than...this.” She gestured vaguely at herself before reaching for her phone again. She looked down at the screen for a brief moment, but when she looked up again, Tess had rounded the desk and leaned down next to her.

Before Hayes could react, Tess placed two fingers gently under her chin, guiding Hayes’s head up and then pressed her lips against Hayes’s and kissed her.

Hayes was more than a little bit surprised at first, but not entirely displeased and after a moment, she dropped her phone in her lap to free her hands to tangle in Tess’s hair and pull her closer.

It lasted for a long minute, but Tess finally pulled back to take a breath and Hayes’s lips twitched with the faintest hint of a smile.

“Wow, Tinkerbell,” she said breathlessly. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t usually…I didn’t – “

“Don’t apologize,” Hayes said. “I…I needed that. Thank you.”

Tess looked down and smiled as she brushed her hair behind her ear.

Hayes phone started buzzing and they both jumped a little bit. Hayes picked it up and swiped the screen.

“It’s my brother,” she said. “I should go.”

“Me too,” Tess said. “It’s late.”

Hayes stood up and nodded briefly. “I’ll see you tomorrow then if the paparazzi and my mother don’t murder me first.” She said it with a wry smile, but she wasn’t sure it was convincing.

She recapped her now-mostly-empty whiskey bottle and put it back in her desk before gathering her things, taking a last futile stab at cleaning up her makeup and slinging her purse over her arm. Tess started to back away, but before she could, Hayes leaned towards her and kissed her cheek.

“If I survive the night, I’ll owe you dinner somewhere other than the office,” she said.

Tess blushed again and nodded.

Hayes opened her mouth to say something – anything – else, but the words died in her throat and she just settled for a tight smile before turning on her heel and making her way outside in a much better mood than she had arrived in.


End file.
